Electronics Serial Port Control?

Discussion in 'Modding' started by hypertone, 21 Apr 2002.

  1. hypertone

    hypertone What's a Dremel?

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    I was woundering if it is possible to control things through your serial port? what I need to know is if I would be able to turn on LEDs or other lights through the serial port. I know I'll need a program to do this which is no prob for me. The main thing is the ectronic set up that I don't get. Any help would greatly be Thanked
     
    hypertone, 21 Apr 2002
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  2. crystalfontz

    crystalfontz What's a Dremel?

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    In general you can figure that DTR (pin 4) and RTS (pin 7) are each good for about 3-5mA at 10v, both positive and negative. Ground is pin 5.

    Plenty to light a standard "high efficiency" LED, but you will not blind anyone with it. For a single LED use a 1.5K resistor in series and you will be in good shape.

    Since they can go negative and positive you can hook up two LEDs (or a single "2-pin" bi-color) so one will light up when it is negative and the other when it is positive.

    There is generally enough voltage that you could string 2 or 3 LEDs in series, but you would want to use a smaller resistor.

    WinTest will switch DTR & RTS with checkboxes (easy for experimenting), and it's source is available.
     
    crystalfontz, 21 Apr 2002
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  3. hypertone

    hypertone What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks crystalfontz.... Thats exactly what I wanted.
     
    hypertone, 21 Apr 2002
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  4. cpemma

    cpemma Ecky thump

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    cpemma, 21 Apr 2002
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